'You're a fool, you know.' The silence that proceeds and follow after Tharja's statement just further irritate her as she stares holes into Robin's body. He was laid out in bed, his leg held tight and strong in its support, propped up on pillows while his body was twisted and curled away from the door. Robin's head was off its pillow, hair a tangled mess behind him, pushed off his sweating face as his hands gripped hold of his chest and mouth.

'Tharja,' Nowi reprimands because she was the only one Tharja could not get to leave. The other's had refused to start with, all too softhearted to want to leave their friend in such a state even though their presence had just made his condition worse. The Khan, at least, had enough sense to follow her instructions and force the others out.

'Robin,' Tharja continues on deterred but Robin won't answer her. He had not said a word since they had all entered the room beyond a rough exclamation of the princeling's name. He coked off whatever tried to leave him and Tharja's eyes could see the strain as the curse further strangled him.

The princess had and her entourage of healers had aided Robin the best they could; checking on his leg, giving him something for the pain before dealing with the symptoms the curse was causing, mainly the fever which would soon burn Robin of his last breath. That Robin had the strength deny the curse's compulsions; the strength of will was perhaps unsurprising, that he did, wilfully ignoring the consequences spoke of his stupidity.

'This is killing you,' she says savagely, through her teeth. Nowi's face crumbles but Robin stays turned away from her, unresponsive. 'Fine.' She sneers. 'Fine, then. Have it your way.' She ignores Nowi's startled cry after her as she sweeps out of the room to find the Princeling. They -

had to talk. However much Tharja would prefer not to.

Tharja had known Robin for a great many number of years, more than the man himself was aware of. Before he went by a corrupted version of his name and went back on his oaths and lost both his wishes for the future and duties he had once seen as sacred. Before he was broken to the point where the pieces could speak.

Of course, with his upbringing and the position he had been born into, Robin had always had his cracks. Being chosen and baring Grima's mark - maybe that's how anyone would be, but Tharja had seen the beauty in them, back when he knew her and spoke her name. Back when he was her's, before he had run from the desert with barely a goodbye left for her.

Tharja expected Robin's departure, had known it was coming before he had. When she woke up one morning with a premonition in her dreams and his grimoire beside her bed, well, it had been enough to tell her. Tharja had even understood with the current government, the state of their country, the fury of their God and the need to change the direction fate was pointing.

Robin had told her the night his mother had "mysteriously" died what they were planning to do; that he was going to be used as a sacrifice to bring Grima onto the mortal plain. Visions had shown that this would prove disastrous. That it would drive Grima mad and that madness would be used against the Ylisseans in act of terrible revenge. Robin had plans from then, more than he ever disclosed to her beyond visiting their sister country and warning them, trying to work with them into helping them. And he had decided to do this alone.

She had understood but Tharja had hated him for leaving her behind. It wouldn't take a genius to work out where he was going, the desperate, covert searches for their lost prince was normal, how it all settled down in a matter of months, less so. Seeing "Robin" for the first time, so unlike the boy she had grown up with, with how unfamiliar she was to him, and she could guess why news on their prince had gotten so quiet. They had done something to him.

More than Robin leaving her, not allowing Tharja to aid him, was the dark consuming betrayal she felt every time he looked at her without looking at her and talked to her like she was a stranger. And Chrom, Tharja hated the prince doubly for taking what was left of him from her.

Robin was happy though, contented, it was easy for Tharja to see and he was even working against those visions, preventing them without even being aware he was doing so. She tries not to let that sting too much. That but a few years with these people did more than what Tharja was able to accomplish in decades.

The bonding tattoos encircling her neck she had never had the chance to present could stay hidden, like Robin's identity and whatever he had been before he went by "Robin" - well, it was obvious that that man died the night he fled into darkness.

Romance was for weak-minded fools, in any case. Tharja had always been more focused in her studies even when she had had attentions. It didn't matter and they obviously had other things to focus on at the minute.

This is fine, Tharja tells herself. Chrom would at least provide for Robin in the state he was in now, against a country that had meant to be his. Against a country who'd been twisted and hurt and damaged through war and a king that had deserved every pained breath he had breathed before he had perished.

Tharja was not weak.

She was not weak and knew what she had to do.

'Chrom.' He was easy enough to find, slumped in the stairwell with a number of his men. He jolts at her voice but his eyes are tight when they address her. Her likes to focus more on how her anklets crack against the rough stiles underfoot, how her clock drags and weighs on her shoulders. Chrom's expression is panicked, lost. Pathetic, she thinks.

'Tell him,' Tharja says simply.

Chrom blinks. 'What?' he asks hoarsely but his men know, they looked a mixture between resigned and worried and hopeful.

Tharja's lips purse. And stupid, she adds silently.

'The biggest secret Robin has,' that he remembers. 'I shouldn't have to tell you what it is, princeling since you're keeping it's pair close to your chest too. Tell him so that he can.'

Chrom pales further. It's almost impressive. 'You mean -'

'Don't play dumb, princeling,' Tharja snaps as she looks him down. 'You surely know what he will not say at this point. I cannot release him from this pain, but you can. You Ylisseans with all your ridiculous sentiments, surely this should be easy.'

Chrom is shaking at this point, when his red knight reaches for him to grip his arm. 'Chrom,' she says urgently. 'C'mon, man. Hold it together. Remember our deal?'

'Yes,' Chrom responds with an uneven voice. 'But - but what if he doesn't…and then I've made things worse.'

'He's dying,' Tharja states harshly, doesn't care how the flinch. 'You cannot make things worse than they already are. We don't have the time for your indecisiveness. Whatever is making you falter, your love for him is either worth this to you or he is not.'

'It's not about that!' Chrom shouts back even if he pinks a bit at her finally acknowledging what they've been talking about. It sort of just makes him look sicker. 'He's worth twenty of me.'

Tharja silently agrees.

'Milord,' Stahl says lightly as he inches forward because literally everyone involved knows what's going on. What could silence Robin now when, if to get better, he should be anything but; what had been brewing between their commander and their chief tactician. The only one's who did not want to admit it were the ones in question and it was tiresome. 'I promise you, I swear on my sword that Robin will not reject this. Not if he knows his feelings are welcomed and that you can assure him.'

Chrom stands but it is too slow and he rocks when he is finally on his feet. Tharja forces herself to move. Her tome falls out of her arms and she doesn't give a damn as she snags the prince's collar and drags him down to her level. 'Choose and choose now,' she hisses to his wide eyes. 'I cannot find the right incantation to sever this. To allow me to do so, you must fix this.'

You have to, Tharja cannot bring herself to say for all that she shakes Chrom. Any other way, but I will not lose him like this.

'Okay.' Chrom's voice breaks. 'Okay.'

Originally Uploaded: 12/01/19

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